..."If you look closely, you'll see that only the traditional churches are affected by secularization. Almost all nontraditional churches are growing, and growing strongly. The reason is simple: While the message stays the same, the methods change to suit the times. If people want it, we'll have flags, loud music, people jumping up and down in the pews, even hip-hop. But Jesus remains the same as he was 2,000 years ago. The Word never changes."


Hmmm. I don't know that I'm jumping for joy with the newest wave of the NEW.
Slowboy | 12.27.06 - 3:55 pm | #

Good point, Slowboy, but I still think we can hope for a Post-Secular society. Well, I do.
Louise | Homepage | 12.27.06 - 8:38 pm | #

"Hmmm. I don't know that I'm jumping for joy with the newest wave of the NEW."

I'm ambivalent, as well. Often, the style of such "nontraditional churches" easily can degenerate into a facile, flashy form of media-driven entertainment marketed to onlookers, rather than encouraging true religious devotion on the part of worshippers.

On the other hand, it's also possible to become unduly attached, if not hidebound, by *some* aspects of "traditional" worship, and hence some flexibility and adaptability may indeed be desirable. It's finding the right balance that's tricky.
Roger Chapman | 12.28.06 - 4:10 am | #

+J.M.J+

Now is time for the Catholic Church in Holland to cast off the last vestiges of Modernism and really evangelize the young. I hope there is a Catholic apologetics movement there to counter any objections from the "emergent" Evangelicals (though I also hope any Dutch apologists who arise will avoid the pitfalls that the apologetics movement in the US fell into.)

In Jesu et Maria,
Rosemarie | Homepage | 12.28.06 - 8:12 am | #

Author packs wallop in final graf, noting that New And Improved Orthodox Christianity was purified by the fire of wacky dissent. More like slogging through the goo in this view but get the point. Cool jab at dissenting Catholicism- that angry group formed during protest of JP's visit went pfffft by 2003. Attention Voice of The Faithful see your final fate. Ironic that Netherlands- near exact center of Europe- could see many scrums between New And Improved Orthodox Christianity and Old Skool Islam. For a nation whose hot new baby name is Muhammad, none too soon.
Gerard E. | 12.28.06 - 9:19 am | #

I guess I am about as orthodox as they come and am in the generation that is swinging the pendulum away from the vapid nonsense of the boomers. I'd go to a Latin Mass every week if it were offered in my parish.

Still, I think we have a lot to learn from these emergent antinomian churches. I guess I wonder whether we, in the future, might open up more space for fellowship and prayer using whatever flashy stuff appeals to people, while preserving the Mass (and perhaps even bringing it back to what was really intended by Vatican II). I continually wonder whether people would feel less compelled to shoehorn their silliness into the Mass if they had some other communal venue for it.

Would this lead to decreasing Mass attendance? It could hardly be worse than the drop from 75% to 20% that has accompanied the happy-clappy 'revolution' of the 1970's and 80's. And you know, it might just work the other way. Funny how we Catholics tend to assume that people want to spend LESS time worshipping. And that's what we get. The evangelicals I know assume that people want to spend MORE time worshipping - and presto! they end up with more and more involvement not only in prayer and fellowship groups, but also in their weekly services.

Sure they are heretics, but the Church has always had the wisdom to sift out the good from paganism and heresy and put it to work for the truth. Maybe we can do it in our generation too?

peace
dannyboy | 12.28.06 - 1:45 pm | #

The author seems to forget that mainstream Christianity started out as a series of house churches as well. (For us Roman Catholics especially...catacomb churches!) I think it is mistaken to see the "new" church and mainstream Christianity as a dichotomy.
JonathanR. | 12.29.06 - 2:29 am | #

Zenit carried an interview a few months ago with a Dutch Catholic journalist saying that the Church is in slow regeneration mode in the Netherelands. So at least two articles now testify to this.

But wait, Mark, The Weekly Standard is a neocon publication. I thought they didn't care about religion...?
Juan Pilgrim | 12.30.06 - 1:37 pm | #

fellowship and prayer other than the mass...That reminds me of a great Lenten experience years ago. The psalms were read, songs were sung.
There was incense and prayers. Absolutely beautiful!
Also, seems like that beautiful sung litany of the saints: "all you holy men and women, pray for us" shouldnt be limited to the Easter Vigil. The meaningful universal petition prayers of Good Friday should be incorporated too.
MJ | 12.30.06 - 2:36 pm | #

Juan:

What's so complicated about the phrase "Mammon first" or "Power First"? One can, like John Derbyshire, have a cordial regard for religion as a conservator of Old Ways and a form of Crowd Control without letting that cordial regard get in the way of what matters to you most. I think neo-cons largely do this.

(And please don't muddy the waters still more by informing me that Derbyshire is not a neo-con. I know this.) My point is that it's not true neocons "don't care about religion". They simply don't care about it when it gets in the way of bigger and more important objectives.

And, of course, there's also the little matter of defining what we mean by "religion". I don't much care about "religion" myself if the religion is Islam, Roman paganism, or animism. I do care a great deal about Christ and what his Holy Church commands.
Mark P. Shea | Homepage | 12.30.06 - 2:49 pm | #

Pray with St. Willibrord for the rebirth of the Church in the Netherlands. May their conversion be a sign to the world.
Boots | 01.02.07 - 2:22 pm | #